Information on Academic Writing
Rachel Hugo Instructor Loudon English 101 Sec 7 March 7, 2016 Academic Writing Academic writing is writing in format with clear punctuation, a clear beginning, middle, and end, and is understandable. The format of academic writing makes is easy for the reader and the grader to understand. Academic writing has a specific writing process and specific traits that form the paper. When writing everyone has their own way of how to write and to who or what you’re writing for plays a big part in how you will format your paper. If you are writing a paper for school or your boss at work, academic writing is usually the proper format that would be the best fit. Traits of Academic Writing There are many traits in an academic essay and making sure that the essay has them will make the paper a lot better. When writing an academic essay make sure that it is descriptive. You want the paper to have as much detail in it as you can. Describe everything thoroughly so that the reader has an understanding of what it is you are trying to say and the logic behind it all, along with being able to get your point across without going off topic. The paper should be respective especially depending on what you are writing about and to whom it will be going to, for example if you were writing about who should be president and why, state your opinions and beliefs but also let the reader know you aren’t trying to change their mind. In your paper it’s okay to have your own opinion and beliefs, but everyone has different ones and you should be careful not to offend any of the readers or graders of the paper. The essay should have objectivity and have correct facts in them that are all backed up with details and sources. You want the reader and the grader to believe what you are saying. Formatting for Academic Writing Formatting is a plan of organization and arrangement for setting up your essay in an appropriate manner. This matter a lot in academic writing because it creates uniformity, clarity, and professionalism. Having a format makes it easier to identify that it is an academic essay for the reader and instructor to grade. Every professor has a different format that they follow, make sure that you have to correct format required. Titling for the essay is very important because now a days everything is submitted electronically. You want to make sure that when submitting the essay that all the information is there. These would include your name, class and section, and the first word of the title of the paper. This correct titling makes it a lot easier for the grader to know whose essay it is. Styling for an academic essay also depends all on what the professor or graders requirements are. Examples of writing styles would be MLA format and APA format. MLA and APA formatting are most common and standard so if there is not formatting style requirement it would be safe to use either of those writing styles. For the heading on the top of the paper it will be in the order of your name, the instructor/ professor, class and section, and the date it’s due. Writing Process There is a process for writing an academic essay and following that process could be very useful. First in the writing process you want to brainstorm ideas. You can do this in so many different ways that include free writing where you just write whatever comes to your mind until you can’t think anymore, or you can create a mind map which is starting with one main idea and then pull branches off of to get more detailed ideas that are related to that main idea. After finding what to write the essay about, you want to put together a thesis statement and look for ideas to further develop. The thesis statement should be interesting and get the reader’s attention and make them want to continue to read the essay. Next in the writing process an outline will be created with bullet points of ideas and details with them. This will help put the paper together before combing everything together. Once the outline has been created, you will begin the rough draft. This will have the essay all put together and in the correct format. Make sure to proof read your rough draft when its done and have at least one other person proof read it so you can get another pair of eyes on the paper to look for any other mistakes and give you feedback. You can even go to the writing center where there are people there to help you with your essays. After the rough draft is done being fixed you will start the final copy of the essay. Work Cited Loudon, Instructor. "Academic Writing." HSS Building, Indiana. 27 Jan. 2016. Lecture. Lunsford, Andrea. Everyone's and Author. 1st ed. New York, NY, 1942. Print.